Evonik Invests $100 Million in U.S. API Production
Evonik is modernizing its active pharmaceutical ingredient production at its Tippecanoe site in Lafayette, Indiana. Over the next five years, the company will invest $100 million in upgrading key equipment used in the manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients.
The goal of the investment is to significantly increase automation, ergonomics, and efficiency, and to further strengthen the company’s position as a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) for pharmaceutical customers in the U.S. The investment is receiving regional funding.
“Strengthening our U.S. active pharmaceutical ingredient business is a strategic necessity. Given the growing demand in the U.S., Tippecanoe plays a key role in building a resilient, globally balanced facility structure,” says Guido Skudlarek, Head of the Health Care Business Line at Evonik. Within Evonik’s global CDMO network, the Tippecanoe site serves as a central pillar for the contract manufacturing of low-molecular-weight active pharmaceutical ingredients.
With the modernization at Tippecanoe, Evonik is investing in its Next Generation Technologies. These help strengthen the company’s technological leadership and further develop energy-efficient production processes. As targeted maintenance investments, they are an important growth driver, as they support the site’s cost leadership while also helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions—fully in line with Evonik’s strict investment guidelines.
Geopolitical uncertainties highlight how important it is to maintain production capacities for essential active pharmaceutical ingredients and modern drug substance technologies in Western industrialized nations. New therapeutic approaches are leading to increasingly complex molecular structures, the production of which is becoming more and more challenging. Evonik already has extensive experience in synthesizing such complex active ingredients. However, to meet growing demands, these capabilities must be further expanded and secured for the long term. This requires targeted investments.
“Our investment in Tippecanoe enables us, together with our customers, to make even more sophisticated molecules available for key therapeutic areas such as oncology, metabolic disorders, and cardiovascular diseases,” says Daniel Fricker, Head of the Drug Substance Product Line at Evonik Health Care.
Tippecanoe is Evonik’s second-largest site in the U.S. and ranks among the world’s largest production facilities for active pharmaceutical ingredients. It houses the industry’s largest facility for highly potent active pharmaceutical ingredients (HPAPI) with a capacity of 170 m³, as well as advanced containment systems (OEL up to 0.1 µg/m³). In addition, the site offers 860 m³ of reactor capacity for general active pharmaceutical ingredients, 2,500 m³ for large-scale fermentation, and a broad technology portfolio. Evonik acquired Tippecanoe from Eli Lilly in 2010 and has since developed it into a CDMO for complex active pharmaceutical ingredient projects for numerous customers.
